Before going through all the bother of digging, or even cutting, I'd try to pull them out if you have a truck and a STOUT rope or strap. A steel cable configured with eyes at the ends, combined with a pulling rope would work, too. With enough extension you could keep your vehicle in the street while working it, if not too much traffic. Junipers like this are usually not that hard to pull up. You'd need a loop at the end of the strap/rope that goes around the neck of the plant (where it comes out of the ground) and is threaded back through itself so that the harder you pull, the tighter it becomes. (The loop could be a doubled up rope or strap.)

The operation is not likely to be any problem for the gas line because its entire length is held in place by soil. Where a root or roots of an individual plant might pull on it, the force will not be near great enough to pull against all the earth that is holding the whole line. And you will be doing it plant by plant ... not all plants at one time. Most of the stout roots are going to be above the gas line anyway.

The great advantage to pulling the plants out is a clean, easy-to-work bed. Otherwise, it will be harder to dig in when planting the new plants. The other big advantage is getting an engine to do all the hard work and making quick work of the job. It will go fast once you get a system established.

Your neighbor's vine is going to win this competition no matter what you plant there. You said you wanted easy care to stay in this house. Don't fight the inevitable. Remove the junipers and plant some more starts of that same vine, enough to extend past and help hide the utility risers, the same bed shape you have now.

No Sawzall, please no chains attached to trucks. He must be joking or looking for video for America's Funniest Home Videos. Use a good pair of loppers and cut the juniper trunks working your way to the main crown and stem. Cut all the trunks flush to the ground. It will not grow back period, end of story. Plants your vines and be done with it.

The chances of you hitting any of those buried utility lines is close to zero from planting a small one gallon size vine.

"... no chains attached to trucks. He must be joking or looking for video for America's Funniest Home Videos." I'm not joking at all. Have done this many times. It's a quick and relatively easy process (if one gets right sized rope/strap, etc.) I'm surprised, Christopher, that you wouldn't have used this same method of removing plants, since I know you've been at it for a while. But if you haven't, I don't know how you're in good a position to advise against it.

Let's just say that is a skill I would not advise any homeowner and definitely not this one to DIY.

No truck or rope. A tree company didn't want the job, so we'd be pretty nervous to have someone try your method. Wish it could be that easy.

Because you've not done it and saw how easy it is. I'm sure these people have the common, basic understanding of physics and that's all that is required.

Alley cat, what makes you say you wouldn't be in a hurry to replant? I suppose we could just cover with pinestraw for the winter. Would not use a shovel--just cut to the ground and maybe feel around with a spade.

Ha ha. No Yardvaark I have never used a pickup truck to pull trees and shrubs out of my fancy clients yards. A big part of that is because I have been climbing up and down volcanoes and mountains the whole time. These are the kinds of gardens you can have trouble driving in.

OK. But here the ground is flat.

Hand dig to either end of the bed to expose the lines and see what you're dealing with before you start. I've seen gas lines anywhere from 3" deep to 24". I've seen phone/cable/fiber optic literally laid ON the soil and then they just mulched or sodded over top of it. I would do the removals by hand, slowly. With all the orange paint lines going into the planting area and the pedestal sitting there, I wouldn't be shocked to see those shallow lines tangled up in the roots. They say "no mechanized equipment within 2 feet of the marks" for a reason.

And I don't understand the comment about not using the sawzall. That is an immensely handy piece of equipment for any homeowner, indoors or out, and is invaluable in this type of situation. I have yet to see the loppers made that could cut through a juniper trunk and it is a heck of a lot faster than using a pruning saw!!

Those tiny little, vine encrusted groundcover Parsons Junipers, I believe she said, will cut like butter with a good pair of loppers and flush to the ground most likely. No other tool required. That will be a whole lot neater for picking up then attacking them with a reciprocating saw. I have a sister. I understand the fascination with the Sawzall. Loppers first. Chainsaw for the next size up. But if you want to use a Sawzall or maybe a pickup truck to yank them out, go right ahead.

"I have a sister. I understand the fascination with the Sawzall. "

That's a rather sexist remark :-) My contractor, who is skilled beyond any other landscape contractor I have ever encountered (and after almost 30 years in the biz I've encountered quite a few) and who is also male, routinely uses a sawzall to cut back any sort of brush or shrubs when clearing out. Even uses it to cut down smaller trees. It is just a very handy tool to use in the garden.

To each his own. I prefer the quiet as much as possible.

Like a chainsaw.

That's the next step up. I still use manual hedge clippers, love that sound, if I think cranking up the hedge trimmer isn't worth the effort.

Well the most depressing comment above is Christopher's about not being able to win over the neighbor's vines. We are in a subdivision with an HOA, but since she's always on the board, how do we complain that her vines are invading our lawn from front to back. I figured if we removed the junipers that do spread onto her property, then if the were gone and we made a defined bed with edging, we could legitimately show her and tell her to have her lawn service keep them at bay.

We had to put up a fence in the back because she hated our knockout roses and even came into our yard to chop away at them. That's when she went nuts with vinca, confederate jasmine, asiatic jasmine and who knows what else. Have to keep trying to cut it back and keep it from covering fence and sprinkler heads. Big headache.

'Oh Dear Lord'. You have a problem here. I'm putting this into the sell the house column.

I'm not that worried about the cable--they'll have to fix it (not that we'd go in like gorillas or anything)--but I thought the gas company could offer SOME advice. She wasn't helpful on Friday, but I'm hoping tomorrow she'll be able to tell us what people are supposed to do in this case. This can't be the first time this has happened.

All you can really do is expose the line so you know exactly where it is, and keep exposing it as you go. The utility isn't going to make any kind of promise about depth, and if you plow through it they may still hold you responsible.

If you're eating a new foreign food for the first time, you might want to try a small sample before ordering up a whole plate. Here, where you're delving into uncharted territory for the first time, you might want to test the waters. If you dig down easily with a hand shovel, exploring any resistance with a hand trowel, you're not going to tear through a gas line. You can find its depth. If it's down more than a foot, you're not going to impede it by digging up some small junipers. By the same token, have you tried pulling up a plant? It might be a lot easier than you think. I suspect the fear of this gas line is overblown and that there's not going to be a conflict. But you can test it and know.

So the helpful gas company rep came back with, " I'm sure a landscaping company could help you with this." But as I've noted, one company said they didn't want to do it and the other won't do it for less than $1500. I'm going to try a guy who works solo and would at least have good ideas.

You are belaboring this, making a small job seem major.

Yardvaark: If 2 companies didn't want to do the job and a 3rd wants to charge $1500 for it, you think I'm belaboring the issue? Plus, we just paid one of those companies $4k to do work around the house of which I thought I removing the junipers would be #1. They put it off to the end and then claimed there was no time or money left in the budget to do it. Wouldn't that give the average housewife a reason to think there must be something they don't want to mess with there?

Christopher C Nc : I called the guy who works solo and has done some good work for us in the past. He felt your idea of letting the neighbor's vines take over was sensible. "You're going to need some kind of ground cover there, so why not let it be her vines?" That would certainly be a way of making lemonade out of lemons. And I know my husband would feel better letting this guy take care of removing the junipers however he thought best.

If I had such a simple task to perform and the option of doing it myself or paying an exorbitant price to a maintenance person I would opt to do it myself.

I've removed a few Junipers, all much larger and older that yours.

Yes to the Sawzall. They make blades designed for pruning. I use a long blade because I cut through some thicker branches.

Wear long sleeves and leather gloves. Junipers will make you itch.

I suggest that you not plant the Abelia or anything else in this area until you have a complete plan for dealing with the vine. Do you know what species the vine is?

"... you think I'm belaboring the issue?"

In a word, yes. You could forget about high priced bids and uncooperative subs and get out there with a shovel and trowel and something to cut with and see if they come out easy.

CJ, 6 years ago I would have been frozen at the thought of removing the juniper. If I can add to emmarene - get a pair of loppers, a sawzall with a pruning blade, gardening gloves, long sleeves, contractor trash bags and Round up. Find out how you will dispose of the debris - trash can or take to city dump, etc

Start at the end towards the house, take your loppers and snip. It doesn't matter if you are doing it the most efficient way or if you cut a large branch or a small one. You will start to see the branching pattern and it gets easier. Only cut the amount you can dispose of that day, load up the trash bags or cans and take to their final destination. The rest is for another day. Once a week? 2x weekly? Daily? Your schedule.

The gas lines are underground. Cutting branches is not going to have any effect on those lines. When you get to a branch that is too thick for the loppers, use the sawzall on it, it is easy to handle and won't overpower you. Cut the stumps as close to the ground as you can. If the stumps give you trouble you can ask for help. By that time it will be easy to see the location of the stumps in relation to the lines. Spray the cut edge of the stumps with Round up to prevent new growth.

Could grass be planted after the juniper is removed? Then the neighbors vines can be cut every week. If you want a garden, take a photo of the area after the juniper is out and post it here.
Good Luck.

April

Thank you, April. My husband has next week off and your plan is pretty much the one we intend to follow. We had a lawn/landscape man who was going to do it plus several other jobs--but he just cancelled on us. He was going to follow that method as well: not pulling, but cutting to the ground, hitting with stump killer, and then perhaps putting a few Miss Lemon abelia there. I'm sure my husband and I can do it ourselves now.

The best part is that we have weekly pick-up for shrubbery, so we can make as big a pile as we want, and our town will send out a truck.

Thanks again!